Tehran, Iran, February 26
By Mehdi Sepahvand –- Trend:
Rolls-Royce does not have an agreement to provide Iran with one hundred airplane engines, Oliver Walker-Jones, head of Communications at Rolls-Royce has said.
Walker-Jones said Rolls-Royce has an agreement to sell three Tay engines to Iran’s Aseman Airlines, which, plus one sold previously, will make four, Mehr reported February 26.
Iran’s Ministry of Transport recently announced Aseman Airlines had reached an agreement with Rolls-Royce over the purchase of 100 Tay-650 engines.
Iran’s aviation industry has been under sanctions for decades and now the industry in Iran is in severe need for renovation. Iran managed to put an end to part of the sanctions in 2016 following its famous nuclear deal with world powers. However, a set of primary US sanctions remain in place, which forbid the sale of any products to Iran with a minimum 10 percent of their parts produced in the US.
"Rolls-Royce does not need an OFAC license to sell a complete Tay engine to Iran as the US content is less than 10%," added Walker-Jones highlighting "we have applied for an OFAC license to be able to sell individual parts for engines which have more than 10% US content."
The Iranian airline and the British aero engine manufacturer have made a deal over purchasing fanjet engines as well as facilitating supply of spare parts for repairing engines in Iran. Meanwhile, full implementation of the agreement is subject to resolving financial transfer issues.